To start with, please bear in mind that this post shares our point of view and might not align with the vision of other Milan visitors defining the Color of Milan Design Week 2023. There were many color applications on a large variety of materials such as textiles, glass, stone, metal, wallpaper, paint, etc. This year we saw a wide range of earth-related palettes and joyful, bold expressions of hues. Not so much in between!
The natural tones, specifically terracotta and dessert colors, have been around for a while, becoming a timeless choice with changing nuances from year to year. The nuances can go to a lighter range towards peach and salmon or get an essential vibe with pumpkin and clay tones.
During this edition, we felt a specific toasted orange; however, was trying to shine in between these two ranges. Not too earthy, not too bold.
Let’s see a few examples from exhibiting brands and designers:
Form&Seek
Images 7+8: Moooi
Why does Toasted Orange make sense now?
A secondary color between red and yellow, Orange is the perfect link between the earth range, which has embraced us for the past three years and a new moment of a joyful color explosion with the first signs popping up in 2021; now all confirmed.
Toasted Orange is still warm enough to count as ‘earthy’ yet also vivid to be a nice bridge towards bolder color codes and a different attitude towards life. We are moving from cocooning towards some more expressed joie de vivre.
The collage shows a sea of yellow reds, amber, tangerine, terracotta, copper and coral with a fine line between all of them.